May 12-13, 2010 the fourteenth meeting of the Special Working Group on Customs Cooperation of States – SCO Members took place in Moscow.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of the Customs Control Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, State Customs Service of the Kyrgyz Republic, State Customs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation.

One of the main points on the agenda was the question of the development of a unified approach to the facilitation of goods transit. Discussion of a memorandum project prepared by the Russian party took place. Ways of future cooperation were outlined within the Agreement between the States – SCO Members on the Creation of Favorable Conditions for International Motor Transportation which is being prepared.

Natalia Vorontsova, head of the Special Working Group, reported about the general guidelines of cooperation in the field of training and advanced training of customs staff. Work in this direction has been carried out since 2007 both bilaterally and multilaterally.

Practical steps for the realization of the Protocol between the Customs Services of States – SCO Members on the Information Exchange in the Field of Control over the Conveyance of Energy Resources (dated October 30, 2008) were discussed. All the customs services held bilateral consultations between each other to discuss technical conditions of informational cooperation in the field of control over conveyance of energy resources. Work on the endorsement of the necessary documents of all parties with the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China remained unfinished. The work will be continued in the nearest future.

The last point on the agenda was the discussion of the Chinese party’s proposal on the possibility of the creation on the regular basis of the Conference of heads of the customs services of states – SCO members. The Russian party expressed willingness to work out the mechanism of such an authority with the SCO Secretariat.

The next meeting of the Special Working Group will take place in the second half year of 2010.